Story

Federal Big Data Summit: Solving Real Problems with Big Data

So I have heard many of these speakers before and most talk about "big data" but do not show "big data results". I also want to hear a three things this series of summits is about: Big Data in the Cloud delivered to Mobile Devices, since I do all three.

From the list of presenters and their agencies, I have worked with big data from the following:

National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health (See Semantic Medline)

In addition, on April 29-30, 2013, the G8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture brought together open data and agriculture experts along with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, and World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte to explore more opportunities for open data and knowledge sharing that can help farmers and governments in Africa and around the globe protect their crops from pests and extreme weather, increase their yields, monitor water supplies, and anticipate planting seasons that are shifting with climate change.

So I was very successful with a Google search for "agriculture" in finding data sets: See Research Notes.

The statement that: "The Federal Big Data Summit: Solving Real Problems with Big Data, will continue this dialogue, exploring the challenges facing federal agencies as they work to address this presidential mandate", is very interesting in that Nicole Wong, who is the White House OSTP Lead for Big Data, is not on the program, and yesterday she led the White House OSTP - Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Massive Data Institute event that did just that!

At the 2012 G-8 Summit, G-8 leaders committed to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, the next phase of a shared commitment to achieving global food security.

As part of this commitment, they agreed to “share relevant agricultural data available from G-8 countries with African partners and convene an international conference on Open Data for Agriculture, to develop options for the establishment of a global platform to make reliable agricultural and related information available to African farmers, researchers and policymakers, taking into account existing agricultural data systems.”

On April 29-30, the G8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture brought together open data and agriculture experts along with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, and World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte to explore more opportunities for open data and knowledge sharing that can help farmers and governments in Africa and around the globe protect their crops from pests and extreme weather, increase their yields, monitor water supplies, and anticipate planting seasons that are shifting with climate change.

What makes data open and why are governments interested in sharing it? From creating economic value to improving services to citizens, the ability for governments to publish open data is essential in today’s environment. Learn the basics of how this is happening around the world today, and what benefits governments are seeing in opening agricultural data to entrepreneurs, researchers, farmers, citizens, businesses, and other governments.

Governments in developed countries are working hard to make agriculture data open for others and accessible to farmers. This panel will focus on the implications of open data, potentially a significant resource for developing countries working to help poor farmers increase their productivity.

Moderator:

Julie Howard, Chief Scientist, USAID

Speakers:

Antonio Limbau, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Mozambique

Hirano Katsumi, Area Studies Center, Japan

Stanley Wood, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Sean Krepp, Grameen AppLab, Uganda

3:45-4:45

Good Practice, Access Barriers and Existing Gaps: Deriving needs from an African Perspective

This session combines past experiences on existing information systems in Africa with an outline for data needs from the perspective of different African target groups. Data acquisition, analysis and interpretation and feedbacks between providers and users of the planned database is not only an administrative but also a scientific task. Together with colleagues from Africa the session addresses the availability, accessibility and usability of relevant data on production, resources, conditions (weather, environmental, water availability, soil quality, etc.), markets, prices and food security of different types of households.

Moderator:

Martin Banse, Director and Professor, Thünen Institute, Germany

Speakers:

Martin Köhler, Director, Ministry of Agriculture, Germany

Emmanuel Tambi, FARA, Ghana

Dorcas Mwakoi, Agricultural Sector Coordination Unit, Kenya

Jörg Lohmann, GIZ, Germany

4:45-5:45

How recent G8/G20 research initiatives can contribute to the Open Data for Agriculture system

Following a short presentation of relevant G8/G20 initiatives, each speaker will analyze the ways this initiative will/could contribute to Open Data for Agriculture. Furthermore, the conditions for this initiative to benefit from Open Data for Agriculture should be discussed. A wrap-up round table discussion at the end of the session should highlight key messages.

April 30

9:00-9:30

Welcome

Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Acting NOAA Administrator

9:30-10:30

What does Open Data Look Like?

This session will provide some case studies of the use of open data to illustrate some of the issues associated with presentation of the data in a way which optimises its usefulness for end-users. It will consider different types of data, guiding principles, and different uses of data, including both research data and national agricultural data-sets.

Making Agricultural Open Data Useful: Interoperability and Accessibility

Providing open data is the first step to using open data, but it also needs to be clear, well structured, and accessible to developers, researchers, and analysts to create meaningful value. This session helps to clearly explain the importance and approach to making data accessible and interoperable. This sets in place the capabilities for looking at international, cross-border analysis and intelligence to support food security issues from climate change to crop viability.

This session will consider some of the technical aspects of sharing different types of data. Examples will be given of challenges encountered and overcome in relation to improving the interoperability of existing datasets and platforms. Data infrastructure solutions and services that facilitate integrated access to existing data sources by wide user communities will be presented.

Moderator:

James Macklin, Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada

We need to fully understand the demand for data from Africa if we are to design and implement effective ways of sharing information. The session will hear from a number of prominent and innovative thinkers, who will explore the challenges facing African agriculture and how we can understand and meet the demand for the right information that addresses them.

Moderator:

Prof. Tim Wheeler, Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, DFID, UK

Speakers:

Prof. Maggie Gill, Senior Research Fellow at DFID, UK

Aaron Clapp, Hubbard Decision Research, USA

Prof. Tim Benton,Head of Global Food Security Programme, UK

Trevor Nicholls, the CEO of CABI, UK

3:45-4:30

World Bank: Open Data and Global Agricultural Statistics for Use by African Policy Makers

A panel will discuss constraints and political realities of data sharing and implementation of the Global Strategy to Improve Agriculture and Rural Statistics. Panelists will also address how governments and other policy makers may analyze, use, and deploy knowledge gained from open data and what the anticipated benefits may be for African countries

4:30-5:15

Delivering on the Value of Ag Open DataGlobally: leveraging the value of scientific open data from the research laboratory to the field

This session demonstrates the impact of genomic and genetics open data on food security and showcases applications of open data. The session starts with the use of open data to strengthen corn and cassava improvement in Africa and moves to promising new international alliances to expand accessibility to open data to protect crops from disease and climate change. The session ends with future ideas on delivery of open data to scientists and farmers via both computer and cell phone.

Across Uganda's banana plantations, a devastating infection has been attacking the fruit, killing off entire crops and threatening food security. There are prevention methods to keep banana bacterial wilt (BBW) at bay, but the government faced a challenge: how to pinpoint the most vulnerable regions of the country and get prevention and treatment information into the hands of growers.

A team from the World Bank found an answer in open data built and spread by ICTs – information and communication technologies.

The project tapped into a system called Ureport – a network of 190,000+ volunteers across Uganda who use mobile technology to report on various issues of interest to UNICEF. Within days, the team was able to leverage Ureport to raise awareness, visualize the spread of the bacteria, and disseminate symptom descriptions and treatment options. More than 52,000 U-reporters either provided information about BBW, requested information, or both via SMS over the five days this spring.

"What Ureport made possible was not only information dissemination or data gathering, but a nationwide conversation focused on a critical issue for Ugandans," Lyudmila Bujoreanu, a World Bank ICT policy specialist, writes in a blog post describing the quick response in Uganda.

It also provided an example of fast data collection through ICTs that can help decision makers visualize crises as they develop and show them where and how best to respond. Similar data has been feeding into open data collections that today are using history, scientific knowledge, mapping, remote sensing, and real-time data collection to inform decisions and provide agriculture advice and warnings around the globe.

Exploring open data opportunities for agriculture

On April 29-30, the G8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture will bring together U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte, and experts in the field to explore more opportunities for open data and knowledge sharing that can help farmers and governments in Africa and around the globe protect their crops from pests and extreme weather, increase their yields, monitor water supplies, and anticipate changes brought on by climate change.

"We are already seeing the immense benefits of open data across the globe, but no more so than in Africa, and, specifically, agriculture data provides some of the most promise," said Chris Vein, senior manager for ICT at the World Bank.

"Imagine creating the ability for farmers to use open data to understand what crops grow best where, or what prices can be expected after harvest, or how best to solve weather, blight or other challenges to yield. Open data combined with other tools such as cellular phones can do just that," Vein said. "Through the World Bank's Open Development work, we are helping countries understand the potential value of their data, unlock that value by letting entrepreneurs inside and outside government use it, and create the tools necessary to empower citizens."

Imagine creating the ability for farmers to use open data to understand what crops grow best where, or what prices can be expected after harvest, or how best to solve weather, blight or other challenges to yield. Open data combined with other tools such as cellular phones can do just that.

Chris VeinSenior Manager for ICT, World Bank

The expansion of open data on global agriculture is being built, in part, around a global strategy led by the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and other foundations and organizations. The strategy, which aims to improve agricultural and rural statistics, starts with a minimum set of core data that countries will collect to meet current and emerging demands and improve agricultural sustainability.

Country-level agricultural data collection practices and standards are still developing in many regions. For example, just two of 44 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are considered to have high standards in data collection, according to the FAO. Organizations such as the Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB) and theAfrican Development Bank are working now to build up that capacity by improving national statistical systems and creating information technology platforms for African countries to convert or store their data for future access.

Other groups are putting open agriculture data to use in analyses and visualizations, often using geographic information systems, that can help practitioners target areas in need. For example:

The Agriculture Market Information System, created by the G20 and supported by the World Bank, uses open data to monitor and analyze key markets for wheat, maize, rice and soybeans. Its information helped inform responses and decisions during the 2012 drought.

Members of the agriculture research consortium CGIAR, supported by the Bank, also host a trove of open data, maps, and data visualizations. The Arab Spatial Development and Food Security Atlas, for example, maps land degradation, irrigated land, crop value, and other data across the Arab region. The Food Security Portal tracks price volatility, and HarvestChoice maps a series of agriculture indicators.

Data Catalog

The World Bank's Open Data initiative is intended to provide all users with access to World Bank data, according to the Open Data Terms of Use. The data catalog is a listing of available World Bank datasets, including databases, pre-formatted tables, reports, and other resources.

The primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

The Wealth of Nations dataset provides country level data on comprehensive wealth, adjusted net saving, and non-renewable resource rents indicators, as published in "The Changing Wealth of Nations" (2011). It presents a set of “comprehensive wealth accounts” for over 150 countries for 1995, 2000, and 2005, which allows a longer-term assessment of global, regional, and country performance in building wealth.

The IDA Results Measurement System dataset measures progress on aggregate outcomes for IDA countries for selected indicators. It includes 32 key country outcome indicators covering areas that are consistent with the Millennium Development Goals, are priorities in many national development plans and/or poverty reduction strategies, and reflect IDA's activities in IDA countries. The indicators capture both the economic growth and the human development priorities of ongoing IDA programs.

This is one of the most comprehensive datasets on public spending in the agricultural sector in Bolivia. The data on agriculture and agriculture-related expenditures was derived from the national accounting data obtained from the Public Accounting Department of the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance of Bolivia. The data is disaggregated by function (such as research and extension, irrigation, rural roads, rural electrification, etc.), economic classification (capital and current) and level of government (central, departmental and municipal) for a period of 13 years – from 1996 to 2008. Sub-national units of observation include the 9 Departments of Bolivia and the 327 municipalities, which in 2009 represented all the municipalities in the country.

Documents & Reports, previously known as World Development Sources (WDS) contains more than 145,000 publically available World Bank documents that enable sharing the institution's extensive knowledge base and implementing its access to information policy. It includes operational documents (project documents, analytical and advisory work, and evaluations), formal and informal research papers, and most Bank publications in more than 60 languages.

Collection of over 60 comprehensive international databases on the structure of the global economy, and standardized metadata for each, covering both technical characteristics of the data and detailed access information. Areas represented in the collection include output and value added by industrial sector, labor force, social and demographic data, productivity, and measures of economic endowments.

Documents & Reports, previously known as World Development Sources (WDS) contains more than 145,000 publically available World Bank documents that enable sharing the institution's extensive knowledge base and implementing its access to information policy. It includes operational documents (project documents, analytical and advisory work, and evaluations), formal and informal research papers, and most Bank publications in more than 60 languages.

Collection of over 60 comprehensive international databases on the structure of the global economy, and standardized metadata for each, covering both technical characteristics of the data and detailed access information. Areas represented in the collection include output and value added by industrial sector, labor force, social and demographic data, productivity, and measures of economic endowments.

Using Big Data to Revolutionize Agriculture Worldwide

Several trends are increasing the importance of using science to improve agriculture: world population growth, decreasing agricultural acreage, climate change, slowing crop yield growth, and use of crops for bio–energy. Additionally, there is a historical link between food prices and political instability – the Arab Spring being most recent example. However, advances in the biosciences, most notably genomics and its “omics” siblings, have been transformative disciplines. Genetic information can be used to better feed the world and improve the quality of animal and food crops. Research activities center on the genomics, bioinformatics and computational biology of animals, plants and their pathogens. This involves the acquisition of large datasets (genome and transcriptome sequence, expression profiles, annotation, etc.) and the use of bioinformatic and computational biology analyses to improve our understanding of plant and animal biology. The proposed panel discusses progress in agro-bioscience enabling cyberinfrastructures - high performance computing, cloud services, storage options, collaborative tools and high speed networking. We also explore the importance of data management, open data policy and government/academia/industry collaboration.

This Wiki Page already!

What is open data? - US Department of the Interior

My Note: The data sets on fires might be interesting, but is 1960 through 2008 or 2001 through 2008. Why not more recent? They also have a lot more data sets than this!

Interior Data Sets

"Open data means taking data that is sitting in the vaults of the government, that the taxpayers have already paid for, and jujistuing into the public domain as machine-readable fuel for entrepreneurship and innovation." -- Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer

What is open data?

Open data is data that are freely available to everyone to use and republish for their own purposes. In the context of government open data, this means that Departments should adopt a presumption in favor of openness to the extent permitted by law and subject to privacy, confidentiality, security, or other valid restrictions. Open data are managed and provided in a way that makes it understandable and usable. The government's investment in data therefore becomes an an asset that can be used and reused for maximum return inside and outside of government. Learn more and join the conversation at Project Open Data.

Looking for DOI data?

Look no further! Search for and discover DOI data and data products at our data.doi.gov beta site! Please note that our catalog was recently launched on November 30, 2013. Expect constant improvement over the next few months as we work out issues and respond to feedback. Data are also available (along with data from other Federal departments) at data.gov.

Have a data suggestion for us?

We welcome your feedback, and have started a space for you to suggest ideas, comment on other ideas, and rank what you think is important. Head over to usinterior.ideascale.com and leave us a note. We're especially interested in hearing what datasets you'd like to see that would serve you or your business better.

The DOI FY14 Open Data Plan

In the FY14 Open Data Plan for the Department of the Interior (DOI), we present our objectives, approach, and quarterly action plan for the fiscal year. In order to make our data assets more open and available, DOI has been building a Data Services Team and setting up basic processes and infrastructure (such as the DOI Enterprise Data Inventory at data.doi.gov), and collaborating with business and mission staff. Just like our business and programmatic data, our Departmental data teams and business subject matter experts in business programs, Bureaus and Offices are our most important strategic assets. During this process, DOI Bureaus and Offices have collaborated very closely, working together and helping each other. The DOI Open Data Initiative bridges our business, data management and IT programs -- together we are working to discover the true value of data.

Here are some of our datasets that you might be interested in

Natural Resource Volunteer Opportunities The volunteer opportunities dataset provides information about more than a thousand natural resource volunteer opportunities and government points of contact. (These and hundreds of other jobs can be searched at volunteer.gov.) Interior is the managing partner and many of its bureaus including the BLM, NPS and FWS participate as well as partner agencies such as the USDA Forest Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.Find it on Data.gov

Federal National Recreation Sites This data set includes all federal natural recreation sites across the country and the recreation opportunities supported by the site. This dataset allows the public to find recreation opportunities for the entire government and eliminates the need to visit each managing agency for information.Find it on Data.gov

Wild Horse and Burro This data set includes herd information for Wild Horses and Burros on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The welfare of these animals is of great interest to the public and this dataset provides increased transparency into the herd locations and numbers. Interior actively pursued this dataset due to public interest and in response to a request for publication of data to data.gov regarding wild horses and burros.Find it on Data.gov

Human Caused Fire and Acres Number of wildland fires and acres burned as a result of human causes, from 2001 through 2008 (updated annually). Displayed by the eleven Geographic Areas used by the interagency wildland fire community for wildland fire resource ordering and dispatching. Includes federal (Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs) and state/local jurisdictions. This information is supplied by the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture.Find it on Data.gov

Lightning Caused Fires and Acres Number of wildland fires and acres burned as a result of lightning, from 2001 through 2008 (updated annually). Displayed by the eleven Geographic Areas used by the interagency wildland fire community for wildland fire resource ordering and dispatching. Includes federal (Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs) and state/local jurisdictions. This information is supplied by the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture.Find it on Data.gov

Prescribed Fires and Acres from 1998 to 2008 by Agency Number of wildland fires and acres burned from 1960 through 2008 (updated annually). Includes federal (Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs) and state/local jurisdictions. This information is supplied by the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture.Find it on Data.gov

Total Wildland Fires and Acres burned from 1960 through 2008 Number of wildland fires and acres burned from 1960 through 2008 (updated annually). Includes federal (Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs) and state/local jurisdictions. This information is supplied by the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture.Find it on Data.gov

“Like the weather information, the data on soils was free for the taking. The hard and expensive part is turning the data into a product.”-Quentin Hardy, in 2011, in a blog post about “big data in the dirt.”

As it happens, not everyone is thrilled to hear about that angle or the acquirer. At VentureBeat, Rebecca Grant takes the opportunity to knock “the world’s most evil corporation for the effects of Monsanto’s genetically modified crops, and, writing for Salon, Andrew Leonard takes the position that the Climate Corporation’s use of government data constitutes a huge “taxpayer ripoff.”

Farmers today produce three times as much food as they did 50 years ago using just 12 percent more land, thanks to new technologies and better farming practices. But the global playing field isn’t level. In Africa, farmers produce a fraction of what they could, according to the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, and most barely get by, struggling against infertile soil, drought, and diseases.

Helping farmers—in Africa and elsewhere—produce more will be key to lifting millions out of poverty and sustainably feeding a world population of 9 billion in 2050. Food-policy experts believe that a crucial step toward that goal is to give farmers, scientists, and entrepreneurs unhindered access to agricultural data which is generated at research centers worldwide. At a two-day international conference on open data in agriculture last week, leaders of the G8—the world’s eight wealthiest countries—brainstormed the best ways to make data available without restrictions, in formats easy for humans and machines to parse.

“Agricultural data is interesting because it comes in several flavors,” says James Hendler, computer science professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, N.Y., who guides the U.S. government’s Data.gov website. There are deeply detailed data sets on things like plant genomics and local weather conditions. Then there are broad data sets on such topics as the best crops for certain soils, changes in rainfall levels, signs of pests and diseases, and anticipated prices at local markets.

If these data sets are made freely available, the possibilities for their use are endless, says Piers Bocock of the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, in Montpellier, France. At the conference, experts from universities and research institutions presented apps they’ve developed using data that’s already publicly available. These included MyFarm, an Android-based country-specific multilingual app that helps train farmers to give agricultural advice to other small farmers, and Aqueduct, an interactive tool that provides high-resolution maps of water-related risks.

In Africa, where even the poorest farmer carries a cellphone, open-data evangelists envision an incredible—and not completely improbable—scenario. “Imagine this,” Bocock says. “A woman standing in a field in Malawi has just borrowed money to start her own farm. What if an app on her mobile phone geo-locates her and then, from this ever-growing data ecosystem of knowledge, is able to identify the soil type and needs of that specific field, and then tell her where, locally, she can buy the seeds she needs and when to plant, harvest, et cetera?”

Making such “what if” scenarios a reality will require increasing amounts of free, accessible agricultural research data that’s easy to use—not just by humans but also by machines. Much of the data has been collected by scientists at universities and research centers and made purposefully inaccessible for security or privacy reasons. “There’s the culture of ‘I don’t want to share it, it’s mine,’ or ‘It’s government property,’ ” says Bocock.

Even if some data is free, it’s not necessarily easy to find and use. For instance, Hendler says there is a growing trend for governments and institutions to make data available in raw form or through application-programming interfaces (APIs), which can be used in data-manipulating software or to create mobile apps. However, such data sets may be difficult to locate on the Internet. They may also be poorly documented with missing units and annotation or be otherwise hard to read and apply.

Hendler, of Semantic Web fame, likens the current situation to the pre-Web hypertext world, when there were no standards for sharing information nor any search engines to find it. There’s a need for new approaches and technology that make it easier to find and interact with data, he says.

The solutions are, of course, not limited to agriculture. One idea being discussed is simpler and more URL-based metadata, the descriptive data about the data sets. This would make data sets more accessible to search engines and allow linking to databases from websites and from other databases. There is also a need for better visualization and analysis tools, says Hendler, as well as standards for sharing, archiving, and interacting with databases.

The G8 open-data conference is a sign of change. At the conference, several countries released action plans to make agricultural data streams available. Canada, India, and the United States, among others, are pushing for an open data-sharing platform. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, for instance, announced the launch of a portal on the Data.gov website, which links to 348 agriculture data sets.

Still, truly open, accessible data on a large scale will require years of effort among G8 and partner countries, international organizations, and the private sector. “At the heart of all this is a change in culture,” says Bocock. “The old-school model of research is that the data collected is the gold mine: ‘Why would I give that to someone else?’ Open data is turning that model on its head to change the world.”

Look for our special report, “The Age of Plenty” in the June 2013 issue.

Media Registration- Federal Big Data Summit (June 20)

June 3rd Email

Hi Brand, It will be great to have you! I will keep you updated on logistics as the event approaches. Best, Best, Sage Communications.

I plan to attend thank you

Hi Brand,

I've been following some of your recent post's and noticed you had recently covered the Data Palooza and thought this similar event would be of interest to you. My Note: It is nice to know that people are reading my work!

On behalf of The Advanced Mobility Academic Research Center (AMARC), I'd like to offer you an invitation and media credential for the Federal Big Data Summit being held June 20 at the Ronald Reagan Building. The event, like AMARC's Mobile and Cloud Summits, will bring together government and industry IT leaders to connect the latest technology with innovative ideas to tackling these data challenges.

Attendees will collaborate on government data and business intelligence challenge areas such as: Big Data in Healthcare; Big Data for Open Government; Transparency and Oversight; Big Data for Mission Support and Enabling Innovation; and Big Data Project Implementations, Challenges and Opportunities.

Keynote: Michelle McKenna-Doyle, Senior Vice President & CIO of the National Football League

Panelists: David Hale, Project Manager, National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health

About The Advanced Mobility Academic Research Center (AMARC): The AMARC mission is to optimize the delivery of government services through the utilization of mobile communications technology, expand academic research capabilities within government organizations, and promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) training at academic institutions.

Action

Notice Of Request For Information.

Summary

On January 17, 2014, President Obama called for senior government officials to lead a comprehensive review of the ways in which “big data” will affect how Americans live and work, and the implications of collecting, analyzing and using such data for privacy, the economy, and public policy. The President requested that the review examine challenges confronted by both the public and private sectors; whether the United States can forge international norms on how to manage this data; and how we can continue to promote the free flow of information in ways that are consistent with both privacy and security. Once complete, the review will result in a report that anticipates future technological trends and frames the key questions that the collection, analysis, and use of “big data” raise for our government and nation. This notice solicits public input to inform this effort.

Dates

Responses must be received by March 31, 2014 to be considered.

Addresses

You may submit comments by any of the following methods:

Email: bigdata@ostp.gov. Include [Big Data RFI] in the subject line of the message.

Instructions: Response to this RFI is voluntary. Responses exceeding 7,500 words or 15 pages will not be considered. Respondents need not reply to all questions; however, they should clearly indicate the number of each question to which they are responding. Responses to this RFI may be posted without change online. OSTP therefore requests that no business proprietary information, copyrighted information, or personally identifiable information be submitted in response to this RFI. Please note that the U.S. Government will not pay for response preparation, or for the use of any information contained in the response.

For Further Information Contact

Supplementary Information

We are undergoing a revolution in the way that information about our purchases, our conversations, our social networks, our movements, and even our physical identities are collected, stored, analyzed, and used. The immense volume, diversity, and potential value of data will have profound implications for privacy, the economy, and public policy.

Recognizing both the trajectory of these technologies and the broadening uses of such data, the President on January 17, 2014, charged counselor John Podesta with leading a comprehensive review of issues at the intersection of “big data” and privacy. As part of those efforts, the Administration, in coordination with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, is engaging with privacy experts, technologists, business and government leaders and the academic community, to consider the implications of “big data,” and focus on how the present and future state of these technologies might motivate changes in our policies across a range of sectors. This review will explore the way that “big data” will affect the way we live and work; the relationship between government and citizens; and how public and private sectors can spur innovation and maximize the opportunities and free flow of this information while minimizing the risks to privacy (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/01/23/big-data-and-future-privacy).

For purposes of this Request For Information, the phrase “big data” refers to datasets so large, diverse, and/or complex, that conventional technologies cannot adequately capture, store, or analyze them.

Questions to the Public

Without limiting the foregoing, commenters should consider the following:

(1) What are the public policy implications of the collection, storage, analysis, and use of big data? For example, do the current U.S. policy framework and privacy proposals for protecting consumer privacy andgovernment use of data adequately address issues raised by big data analytics?

(2) What types of uses of big data could measurably improve outcomes or productivity with further government action, funding, or research? What types of uses of big data raise the most public policy concerns? Are there specific sectors or types of uses that should receive more government and/or public attention?

(3) What technological trends or key technologies will affect the collection, storage, analysis and use of big data? Are there particularly promising technologies or new practices for safeguarding privacy while enabling effective uses of big data?

(4) How should the policy frameworks or regulations for handling big data differ between the government and the private sector? Please be specific as to the type of entity and type of use (e.g., law enforcement, government services, commercial, academic research, etc.).

(5) What issues are raised by the use of big data across jurisdictions, such as the adequacy of current international laws, regulations, or norms?

Opening Remarks

Visionary Keynote

Visionary Panel – Big Data in Healthcare

9:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Government health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have launched various Big Data initiatives. This panel will examine success stories, use case scenarios and best practices around the use of Big Data applications in Healthcare.

Federal Agencies spend over $2 Trillion every year on various programs and initiatives. The Recovery.gov model has shown how transparency initiatives can dramatically reduce Fraud, Waste and Abuse which can be applied Government wide. This panel will examine Big Data initiatives that can help reduce the cost burden of oversight and reporting by making data available for electronic processing and decision making.

Big Data enables agencies to process larger amounts of structured and unstructured data at lower costs using cloud computing and community hardware enabled with open source software. This panel will examine how Program Managers and Federal Program Executives can explore new ways of collecting, analyzing and presenting mission data for surveys, statistical analysis and decision.

Industry Analyst Insight

This panel profiles Big Data technology innovators that have implemented real projects and are delivering real value to their users. The panel will cover challenges, opportunities and provide valuable lessons in how to go about implementing and planning for Big Data Projects.

Visionary Panel – Big Data Research & Applications in Government and Academia

4:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.

Panelists from the AMARC government Advisory Board and participating institutions will talk about recent research in the area of Big Data and analytics and what they see coming in the near-term future.